Soft Machine - Volume Two LIMITED EDITION Colored Vinyl

The first two albums by England's legendary Soft Machine, originally released in 1968 and 1969, remain among the most innovative and influential releases of that musically fertile era. These seminal LPs offered a visionary psychedelic-progressive-jazz-rock mix that helped to make the Soft Machine one of Britain's first significant underground bands, as well as a key force in the birth of both progressive rock and jazz-rock.

A product of the same fabled Canterbury scene that spawned such beloved cult acts as Caravan and Hatfield and the North, the Soft Machine was the rare art-rock combo whose members possessed the instrumental skills to execute their ambitious musical ideas, as well as a playful sense of humor that balanced the band's complex compositions and adventurous improvisations. By the time they began making albums, the Soft Machine was already a sensation in the budding U.K. rock underground, thanks to their now-legendary performances at such fabled London clubs as the UFO, the Speakeasy and Middle Earth, where they shared stages with the likes of Pink Floyd and Tomorrow.

The aptly titled Volume Two introduced a retooled Soft Machine lineup, with Wyatt and Ratledge joined by bassist Hugh Hopper, an old Canterbury friend who had guested on the first album. The sophomore disc finds the threesome moving towards a more explicitly jazz-influenced sound, with an increased emphasis on instrumental material. The album is bookended by a pair of extended compositions, "Rivmic Melodies" and "Esther's Nose Job," which are broken up into shorter individual tracks bearing whimsically arbitrary titles. That approach was suggested to the band by Frank Zappa, whose Mothers of Invention album Absolutely Free was reportedly an influence on Volume Two.

This landmark vinyl gem has been out of print for decades, but now it is back in this meticulously packaged Sundazed edition. Mastered from the original analog tapes and pressed on pristine high-definition vinyl, this lovingly restored vintage gem sounds as powerful and imaginative as ever.

New Sealed limited edition LP on Colored Vinyl! Includes gatefold jacket. 

Track Listing:
Side One - Rivmic Melodies 
Pataphysical Introduction - Pt 1
A Concise British Alphabet - Pt 1 
Hibou, Anemone and Bear
A Concise British Alphabet Pt II
Hulloder 
Dada Was Here
Thank You Pierrot Lunaire 
Have You Ever Been Bean Green? 
Pataphysical Introduction - Pt II
Out of Tunes

Side Two - Esther's Nose Job 
As long as He Lies Perfectly Still 
Dedicated to You But You Weren't Listening
Fire Engine Passing With Bells Claning 
Pig
Orange Skin Food 
A Door Opens and Closes 
10 30 Returns to the Bedroom 

NEW SEALED LP - limited Edition! on Colored Vinyl with gatefold jacket!